This article makes a concerted attempt to comparatively evaluate the role of domestic courts vis-à-vis investment disputes with the specific focus on South Asian Countries. For this purpose, the study analyses the dispute settlement provisions in the selected bilateral investment treaties ( BITs) and their interactions with the system of national courts in these countries. The article also simultaneously looks into the general tendency of the courts of these countries to exercise judicial review over the investment awards rendered by investment arbitral tribunals. The study is also very significant as recently India has revised its previous Model BIT 2003 and the revised Model BIT 2015 seeks to prescribe exhaustion of local remedies as a condition precedent for submission of a claim to investment treaty arbitration.